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Ana Chavarria, front office manager of The Times Hotel, is in the process of organizing an orientation program for new front office staff

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Ana Chavarria, front office manager of The Times Hotel, is in the process of organizing an orientation program for new front office staff. As part of the program, she will introduce the front office equipment and associated paperwork. Further training on each piece of equipment will be scheduled at a later time. She begins by listing and describing the functions of all the equipment. She also spells out how each piece of equipment relates to the overall function of the front office. Because most of her front office staff are relatively new (turnover is high), she decides she must deliver the orientation program herself. Paolo and Brian have been hired at The Times Hotel as desk clerks. Paolo will start training on Monday at 7:00 a.m., and Brian will start on Monday at 3:00 p.m. On Monday, a full house is going to check out by 11:15 a.m., and another full house will check in at 2:00 p.m. Ana greets Paolo at 6:45 a.m., but the PMS is malfunctioning and a switchboard operator has called in sick. After attending to these crises, she receives a request for 20 additional rooms for today. By 1:30 p.m., Paolo, who has helped out where he could, still has received no orientation. Ana feels that all is not lost—yet. Brian will be in at 2:45 p.m. She will keep Paolo on for another hour and deliver the orientation program to both new hires at once. Brian shows up at 2:45 p.m. ready to go to work. Ana takes both Paolo and Brian to the coffee shop and begins a brief orientation to The Times Hotel. Returning to the front office half an hour later, she finds a long line of people waiting to check in. She tells Paolo, “Check out on the time clock; I will catch up with you tomorrow,” and asks Brian to work with the switchboard operator “until we get this mess straightened out.” At 5:00 p.m., things have calmed down, and Brian is eager to learn his way around the front desk. In desperation, Ana writes up a quick checklist and tells Brian to go to Kris, the switchboard operator, and Hoang, the front desk clerk, and have them explain how to operate the switchboard and the PMS registration module. How does Ms. Chavarria’s view of the orientation program compare to that presented in this chapter? What has she omitted from the program? How realistic is her scheduling of this orientation program? Is it possible to have a senior employee conduct the orientation program? Under what circumstances? Do you think Ms. Chavarria’s turnover rate has anything to do with her approach to orientation?